 The world ends not with a bang, but with silence  There are few UK horror authors as versatile and inventive as Dave Jeffery who effortlessly shimmies from Himalayan killer yetis (Frost Bite) to marauding werewolves (Tooth and Claw) via an entertaining dose of Beatrice Beecham with his welcome forays into YA fiction. This latest novella, A Quiet Apocalypse, may well be his darkest work yet; the tongue in cheek humour of his trashy werewolf and yeti romps is entirely absent in this excursion into the well-trodden world of post-apocalyptic fiction. It might be a familiar path, but Jeffery’s take is refreshingly original and entirely non-sensational, taking in disability as a major thread in his apocalyptic vision. It is ever so slightly reminiscent of Richard Farren-Barber’s excellent Perfect Darkness, Perfect Silence, which also featured a very ‘quiet’ type of character-driven apocalypse. Do not expect any post-apocalyptic Mad Max stereotypes in either of these gritty novellas which have tight microcosm focuses of the disaster as hand. The story is set sometime after a mutant strain of meningitis (MNG-U) has wiped out most of mankind, the majority died horribly with symptoms which began with pneumonia before developing into bacterial meningitis and eventual death with catastrophic brain damage. The few who survived the epidemic were left deaf, an even smaller percentage retained their hearing and the focus of the book concerns the horrible relationship which develops between those with hearing and those deprived of it. A Quiet Apocalypse opens with a downbeat paragraph which perfectly sets the tone for the brutality for what lies ahead: “Someone once said that the world would end, not with a bang, but a whimper. Yet when the time came, the world could have died screaming until its lungs bled, and most would not have been able to hear anything at all. That was the nature of the virus that silenced mankind.” It is worth pointing out that A Quiet Apocalypse is an incredibly bleak book and I did wonder about the extremes those who were left deaf went to in order to enslave those who still had the ability to hear. Sure, I appreciate it is a story, but if mankind sinks this low and if this is a true reflection of what lies ahead we are truly finished. However, if we look at the current state of the planet, and the politicians calling the shots, then it is no wonder Jeffery’s vision is so dark and offering little, or no hope. The novel is told, in the first person, by ex-schoolteacher Chris, who has been enslaved by a deaf man called Crowley who uses Chris to be his ears and part of his early-warning-system, as unknown and unheard threats may come suddenly and without warning. Crowley uses a ‘Tell-Pad’ computer to communicate with Chris on which they exchange abbreviated messages similar to texts in which Chris informs him of any sounds and disturbances. A while earlier Chris had tried to escape and Crowley smashed his knee beyond repair who now walks in great pain, with a very rudimentary leg brace to help him hirple along. I did wonder how the story would have played out if it had been told in the third person. The first-person narrative restricts us to the point of view of Chris and although it does fill in some of the blanks from what went before the disaster, a narrative from one of the deaf characters might have expanded the story into other directions and perhaps from a novella into a longer work. Crowley’s main fear is losing his number one commodity, Chris, to a large and powerful gang called the ‘Samaritans’ who hunt for the last remaining people who can hear and take them back to their base ‘Cathedral’ which we are told is the remnants of the major English city Birmingham. Chris is an even more important ‘find’ as he is able to understand sign language from his previous job in education. Before long the Samaritans appear, but before their arrival Chris plays around with an old beat-up radio, listening to the static, hoping to pick up a signal or voice which might signify there is a base of other survivors who can still hear and the possibility of escaping there. The story picks up legs when Chris eventually meets another guy who can hear called Paul, but can he trust him? In this world everyone is either a wolf, a wolf in sheep’s clothing or a victim (the proverbial lamb). The novella easily had enough material to be expanded into a full novel, particularly if the points of view were expanded, and I would have like to have seen ‘Cathedral’ for example, instead the entire story is played out in the surrounding rural areas. The flashbacks helped flesh out the story, although do not reveal every detail of which went on before, including the death of his daughter Poppy and wife Evie. Interestingly, the story suggests that deaf people who had no hearing before the outbreak carried MNG-U and were seen as scapegoats and were blamed. Although A Quiet Apocalypse never comes across as preachy or worthy it also has a lot of say about the struggle of minority groups such as the deaf. The drama picks up intensity as it heads into the second half spiralling towards an incredibly dark and uncompromising ending which will have you wincing. A Quiet Apocalypse was entertaining company for a couple of hours and if you’ve never read Dave Jeffery before this is good place to start. But if you fancy something lighter Tooth and Nail or Frost Bite are also fine selections. 4/5 Tony Jones    Comments are closed.
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